[SYN-063]
Gospel and bluegrass as we now know them both came to exist
around the same time, in the era of the Great Depression.
Their respective roots, of course, date farther back in
American history, via centuries old "Negro spirituals" and
the early folk music traditions that trickled down from the
mountains of Appalachia. Despite the obvious racial divide,
an eventual crossover was inevitable, seeing as how the two
forms were, quite literally, neighbors. But not just in
geographic terms. Both, in essence, were the music of the
American south's poor, downtrodden and disaffected.
Bluegrass might sound like a party but it cloaked an ongoing
obsession with such themes as pathos and death. Gospel,
meanwhile, for all its perceived weightiness, had but one
main concern: delivering uplift and hope. How fitting, then,
to tether a selection of classic gospel staples to the
natural ebullience of bluegrass, and let fly! Let us now
rejoice.
— Mac Randall